Flutterby™! : Kitchen Cabinet doors 2010-08-19 15:37:34.295226+00

Kitchen Cabinet doors

2010-08-19 15:37:34.295226+00 by Dan Lyke 6 comments

Installed the long anticipated first batch of kitchen cabinet doors last night.

Sorry, I have no particular experience other than a purchased equipment cabinet which has no name on the latch.

I've actually thought about building a jig to run my cheaper circular saw at an angle for doing cove cutting, but for the size cove I'd use for door pulls I'll probably just do it on the router table.

On the "push to open" latches, I haven't found any I really like. I bought a bunch of different ones to try out, but I'm concerned that they're not going to hold up, and that they won't interact well with the soft-close sprung hinges: I'll just have a lot of semi-open cabinets all the time. If you can recommend a brand that you've had luck with, though, I'm happy to investigate further.

I ended up building organizers with cheap plywood this weekend, so didn't get to machining sample handles. That's on the list.

My wife is big on the drawer and cabinet pulls as well. I prefer a smooth drawer front and cabinet doors with no pulls at sharp angles. I suspect that this may result from some sublimated sexual preferences.

At least for the cabinets, one alternate possibility is with cabinet latches that I can only describe as the "bounce" variety. Press on them once, and a spring pushes the door out a bit so that you can pull it out the rest of the way. I don't remember what they are called, Sometimes they are found on glass doors. They leave a really neat clean appearance that I would find aesthetically pleasing with your cabinet design, but I tend strongly towards a minimalism that most would find flat and cold.

For the drawers an asymmetrical single or double internal coves can also be used. I have done this a couple of times on a table saw. The blade is set at an angle. A double fence is used to capture the wood so that it can be forced against the blade in a manner that is more or less perpendicular to the blade. By varying the angle of the blade to the table, the angle of the fence to the blade and the height of the blade, you can change the shape of the cove(s) cut into the drawer front. You can not only change the height, but the symmetry of the curve as well. If set properly you can get a more than adequate grip on the lips of the coves for heavy drawers if there are two parallel cuts. You might even be able to get away with one. I am not sure as I have not tried out the maximal variations available with my equipment.

The following YouTube shows a commercial product, but the video only shows a symmetrical curve being cut, but it should give you a better idea of the basic process than my words. The asymmetry is controlled by changing the angle of the blade.

This is not the most comfortable of cuts, and strict attention must be paid. The wood is moved more or less perpendicular to the blade rather than parallel, so it puts a serious strain on it. A lot of wood is removed. Depending on shape being carved out, the blade may be more or less trapped.

I know you use a Festool with a table, so I have no idea if you even can do this type of cut. Or if you could, how dangerous it would be. The radius of your saw might also be an issue.

On the other hand, the technique provides the amateur with a variety of cuts that they could obtain by no other reasonable means. Some amateurs and small shops do cut fair amounts of cove molding by this method for both furniture and custom cove molding for rooms.

Yep. The narrow drawers (ie: the gap on that big vertical pantry cabinet) will a continuous grain mahogany board of the appropriate width, the drawer fronts for the two big pot drawers on the right will be rail and stile like the doors, with mahogany across the thin top drawers (might even make that continuous from the drawers on the pantry, though the mahogany is even figured enough that nobody'd ever notice).

We haven't settled on door pulls yet, and something I need to build some mockups for is an idea I had for the drawer fronts: What if I inlaid a swoosh into the drawer front board that extended out and provided a drawer front? Still trying to figure out how to make it curved, as I think just cutting a curve won't look terribly good, but trying to curve the "L" shaped piece that'd give a bit of a handle seems like the glue-up from hell.

If I do that, then maybe I can mill drawer pulls out of mahogany in a shape that Charlene would like.

Fabulous! They really look great. And they look super utilitarian too. Its my guess that you are going to put fronts on the drawers. Yes? If so, please be sure to post pictures when that is done. Truly impressive design and execution.

I am goofing off on a bathroom remodel that will have similar though smaller storage cabinets to replace an external closet & hall that I sacrificed to extend the length of the bathroom. Your work has given me some motivation. Though my next step is to put down concrete board on the floor and finish installing the bathtub -- nothing so glamorous as what you have shown today.